I am very interested in Perl, and I will have graduated in a month. I’m planning on expanding my knowledge on Perl during July and August, and to start working around September. Now what I was wandering… Are there companies looking for programmers around the world to employ on the internet. No offices to drive to every day, and the possibility to work for companies from other parts of the world.

You're going to find it difficult. Not many companies want someone to work any dsitance away from them let alone in another country. They somehow feel "out of control" of the individual and like to be able to see them. You could try the big corporates (starting from those in the Fortune top 500). Most large corporates are trustworthy but when you're self employed there's always the danger that an invoice won't be paid.

Why don't you do a snazzy web site for yourself and promote what you can do through it?

I am thinking of setting up such a web site in July, because I am currently held up with finishing my education :-)

I don't know anybody who does homecommuting, but I have read about it. The fact is that if I am interested in a project, I can't even sleep anymore (know the feeling?), and so I do a lot my work at home. I would be fantastic if I could just stay at home, with all the freedom and benefits it has to offer, while working on a project the whole time.

Perhaps it is true that there are so many problems involved that homecommuting just isn't the answer, but it is worth a shot.

Don't be dismayed... the telecommuning jobs are hard to find, but they're there. Primarily you may find subcontracting jobs, but there's obviously a huge need for such work.

One of our sites, though is has a note posted on the "custom work" page that no work can be accepted until Fall 2000, we keep receiving "PLEASE write our program!!!" messages. To get a head start, if you plan on writing Perl as part of your living, be sure to offer custom programming services on your site. All you'll need are a handful of clients who'll keep coming back.

I agree with Ray... nothing can be better promotion than a solid web site. I'd add that you compile a list of solid references; a list of (non work-for-hire) work completed, and write the most efficient, cleanest code you can.

I do disagree about the larger companies though. To me, it's obvious that larger companies probably will not hire telecommuters right off the bat. I think this because telecommuting is typically an "earned" priviledge, unless you have astronomical capabilities for unmet needs at the right price. Targeting small to mid-size companies (IMHO) may be the best bet.

As for trustworthiness -- that's another matter completely. As with any job, you should do some research on the company; how long they've been in business, are they a "real" company, or have they just tacked an "Inc." on the end of their domain name, etc. Considering the other side, companies are risking just as much in hiring someone they don't have in their office. Project deadlines going missed without a word, disappearances, etc. You need to establish yourself as trustworthy as well.

TPA's parent company (Tintagel Net Solutions Group, Inc. -- a real Inc. ) has hired programmers from around the world (the most recent in Russia) to write projects based on email "interviews" and requests of the "most efficient, cleanest code you can write".

When you're ready to go, send the url to your resume and code samples to djasmine@perlarchive.com.

One way of getting somes completed sites under your belt is to do free sites for charities. Most charities would like a web site but can't afford to pay for one. But if you do this then you need to find out for the charity what the site hosting fees are so they can budget for them - it's no good developing a free site if the charity can't afford to run it. You could get sponsorship to pay for the web site hosting - a free web site and no hosting fees is a deal nobody would turn down.

I was suprised that I found a company that was offering $53,000 - $83,000 starting salary just in my local area for a perl/html/java programmer with photo paint expirience. I think 70% of the people in this forum qualify. Any way, You could just take a look at that and see what they require as for your location. All the listings are in USA, I don't know if they have international sections though. I looked but I didn't see anything.